the present invention relates to a rail vehicle guide and support arrangement consisting of a bogie having independent wheels and comprising a crossbeam or cross member fastened to a vehicle body in such a manner as to be perpendicular to the vertical plane containing the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, in proximity to one end of said body, and also comprising two longitudinal members each equipped with at least one wheel, and, in the longitudinal direction, mounted on articulation means carried by the cross member on each side of said vertical plane, in such a manner as to enable the wheels carried by the longitudinal members to follow the curves and to pass over uneven parts of the track.
Its principal application is in urban transport, particularly when the track has small radius curves or when the track infrastructure, especially for underground urban transport, as in the case of the Paris "metro", requires the use of light, compact guide and support arrangements.
Numerous rail vehicle support arrangements are already known which are able to ensure dynamic stability of these vehicles both on straight stretches and on curved parts of the track which are taken at high speed.
European Patent No. 0 060 000, which is the equivalent of U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,919, describes a rail vehicle support and guide arrangement equipped with at least four wheels mounted on a support intended to be fastened to a vehicle body in proximity to one end of said body. This arrangement consists of a crossbeam or cross member held at right angles to the vertical plane containing the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, and of two longitudinal members disposed, in the operating position, in the longitudinal direction of the body, one on each side of said vertical plane. These longitudinal members are connected together by means of a rod mounted on ball joints. They are articulated to the common cross member by pivots adapted to assume a certain inclination in a substantially vertical plane. These pivots are connected together by ball joints and a bar fastened to the cross member by a pivot perpendicular to the plane formed by the cross member and the longitudinal axis of the vehicle.
On curves the longitudinal members pivot relative to the cross member about substantially vertical pivots and form the opposite sides of a deformable parallelogram, while the cross member remains at right angles to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle body.
The rigidity of the longitudinal members nevertheless prevents the wheels carried by one and the same longitudinal member and supported on one and the same line of rail from being simultaneously oriented tangentially to said rail.
This results in considerable slippage of the flange of one or both of the two wheels carried by the longitudinal member, thus giving rise to a disagreeable noise ,and increased wear on the rails and wheels.